Data Scientist

BDO•Kitchener, ON

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

BDO is a firm built on a foundation of positive relationships with its people and clients, offering an award-winning environment that fosters a people-first culture with a high priority on personal and professional growth. The firm is seeking a talented Data Scientist with a strong specialization in Data Analytics & Visualization to join its Innovation and Change team. This replacement role is pivotal in transforming raw data into actionable insights that enhance operational efficiency, support audit, tax, and advisory engagements, and enable data-driven decision-making across the firm. As a member of the Data Analytics team, the Data Scientist will be responsible for the "last mile" of the data strategy: translating complex internal data into sophisticated, interactive dashboards and data products for business users across the organization. The role involves working directly within the Databricks lakehouse and SQL data warehouses to architect data models, curated datasets, and predictive tools that enable firmwide insight generation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field.
Advanced proficiency in SQL (window functions, CTEs, stored procedures) with a demonstrated ability to write complex queries, optimize performance, and work with relational databases.
Hands‑on experience with Databricks for data engineering, modeling, and analysis.
Expert-level skills in Power BI, including DAX, Power Query (M), and managing workspaces/gateways.
Strong ability to explain technical data insights to non-technical accounting and finance professionals.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within a Professional Services, Financial Services, or CPA firm environment is an asset.
Knowledge of Python for statistical analysis or scripting outside of Databricks.
Familiarity with Azure cloud services (Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake).
Experience with predictive modeling or machine learning concepts.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain advanced Power BI dashboards that track firm KPIs, workforce utilization, financial performance, and internal quality metrics.
Design user-friendly visualizations that present complex data in ways that are accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Write complex SQL queries and utilize Databricks to clean, aggregate, and structure raw data for visualization and data product layers.
Responsible for the ETL processes required to collect and transform large datasets for reporting, analytics, and predictive modeling use cases.
Design, build, and maintain curated data products—standardized, reusable, business‑ready datasets that serve as trusted sources of truth.
Collaborate with business stakeholders to evolve data products based on emerging operational or analytical needs.
Develop, test, and deploy predictive models to support firmwide decision-making and identify opportunities for optimization.
Monitor and maintain model accuracy and effectiveness over time, ensuring ongoing performance alignment with business needs.
Partner with internal Finance, HR, Market Intelligence and Business teams to gather requirements and translate non-technical business questions into visual data stories.
Clearly communicate technical analysis and results to stakeholders using data visualizations, reports, and presentations, ensuring insights are actionable.
Automate data refresh schedules and reporting workflows to replace manual Excel-based processes.
Ensure end‑to‑end reliability, monitoring, and sustainability of automated pipelines.
Ensure all internal data handling complies with our firm’s strict security, privacy, and compliance standards.
Maintain documentation for data models, data products, predictive models, and analytical processes.

Benefits

Award-winning environment that fosters a people-first culture with a high priority on your personal and professional growth.
Extensive opportunities for learning and development.
Support for achievement of personal goals outside of the office and making an impact on your community.
Actively involved in our communities by supporting local charity initiatives.
Support staff with local and national events where you will be given the opportunity to contribute to your community.
Competitive total cash compensation that recognizes and rewards your contribution.
Flexible benefits from day one.
Market leading personal time off policy.
Reimbursement for wellness initiatives that fit your lifestyle.
Workplace culture of respect, inclusion, and diversity.
Recognition and celebration of valuable differences among each of us, including race, religious beliefs, physical or mental disabilities, age, place of origin, marital status, family status, gender or gender identity and sexual orientation.
Accommodation to complete the application process.
Flexible work model (blended approach designed to support the flexible needs of our people, the firm and our clients).